Document inserters that collate stacks of different documents into a document assembly and then insert the document assembly into an envelope for mailing are well known. Some document inserters can have a volume of 10,000-20,000 mail pieces per hour or more, for example. During a job change-over, where the size of a document to be assembled into a document assembly is changing, there are a number of job setup steps required for adjustment of the inserter. One of these steps can comprise moving an operator-side chassis side guide either in for smaller material or out for larger material. This allows the material to settle onto the deck between the chassis side guides. By doing this, the operator must also adjust the point during the cycle where the material is released from jaws of a gripper arm. The gripper arm must release the document earlier for a small document and later for a larger document. There is no one location that will work for all document sizes.
One conventional inserter utilizes a set of cams on a lower cam shaft to control the opening and closing of the gripper jaws for both document/material acquisition and document release. The lower cam shaft is driven by the inserter's main motor and runs at a constant rotational speed. Many of the inserter motions are driven by cams that are located on this shaft.
The point in the cycle where the document is acquired by the gripper jaws does not change during normal material change-over. The release point, however, is commonly adjusted for inserts having different sizes. To adjust the release position, one of the cams on the lower cam shaft has to change phase relative to the other. The adjustment of the release position is a time-intensive, trial and error process.